Seventy percent of voters want Prime Minister Naoto Kan to resign by the end of August while his Cabinet's approval rating slumped to 15 percent, an Asahi Shimbun survey showed.
Seventy percent of voters want Prime Minister Naoto Kan to resign by the end of August while his Cabinet's approval rating slumped to 15 percent, an Asahi Shimbun survey showed.
The approval rating is the lowest since the Democratic Party of Japan took power in 2009, dipping below even the 17 percent recorded during the final days of the administration of Yukio Hatoyama, Kan's predecessor.
The telephone survey, conducted July 9-10, received valid responses from 1,920, or 58 percent, of 3,312 voters chosen randomly across the nation. The survey excluded voters living in parts of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures that were heavily damaged by the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake.
Voters were asked to choose from three options for Kan's future as prime minister.
Thirty-one percent of the respondents said Kan should resign "immediately," while 39 percent said he should resign "by the end of August when the current Diet session ends."
Only 23 percent said Kan should remain in office until "September or later."
Kan has promised to step down once a certain level of progress has been made on rebuilding from the March 11 disaster.
In an Asahi Shimbun survey conducted on June 11-12, the approval rating for Kan's Cabinet stood at 22 percent while the disapproval rating was 56 percent. The latest survey showed the disapproval rating has risen to a record-high 66 percent for the administration.
Kan's recent anti-nuclear stance has not helped him regain popularity.
Proponents of phasing out nuclear power generation in Japan accounted for 77 percent of all respondents, but only 15 percent of them supported the Cabinet.
Those who support phasing out nuclear power were asked to choose from five time-frames to accomplish this task. Twenty-two percent chose "within five years," 36 percent picked "within 10 years," and 24 percent selected "within 20 years." They accounted for 63 percent of all respondents.
The other options presented were "within 40 years" and "beyond 40 years from now."
In June, Banri Kaieda, minister of economy, trade and industry, said nuclear reactors that had been suspended for regular inspections could be resumed because short-term safety measures had been implemented at the plants.
While 58 percent of the respondents said Kaieda's move was "inappropriate," only 26 percent said it was "appropriate."
Kan later infuriated Kaieda by saying that reactor operations could resume only after they undergo stress tests.
When asked whether Kan had handled the situation appropriately, 84 percent of the respondents said "no," while 9 percent answered in the affirmative.
Although specifics of the stress tests had not been determined when the survey was conducted, 66 percent of the respondents said the decision on restarting the reactors should be made "after the additional investigations," including 64 percent of the respondents who agreed with Kaieda's request in June to resume operations.
That compares with 21 percent who said "the decision could be made independently of the additional investigations."
Thirty-one percent of those who said Kaieda's move was "appropriate" said they considered the impact on the economy "very much" in making a judgment on whether to restart the reactors, whereas only 18 percent of those who said his move was "inappropriate" gave a similar answer.
The survey informed respondents that the central government has said that nuclear reactors in operation for 30 to 40 years "can be operated longer if their safety is confirmed."
Eighty-six percent of the respondents said these reactors "should be decommissioned," while only 8 percent agreed with the government's position.
Seventy-seven percent of those who said Kaieda's request for a resumption of reactor operations was "appropriate" said the aging reactors should be decommissioned.